


Ghost and the Machine - Angst with a Happy/Hopeful Ending

by rebelmeg



Series: The Ghost and The Machine [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional, Gen, Ghost Tony, Spy Bucky, Tony Stark Has Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22110946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelmeg/pseuds/rebelmeg
Summary: The angst ending toThe Ghost and The Machine!Written for my TSB square T2 - Angst
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Tony Stark
Series: The Ghost and The Machine [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1550425
Comments: 10
Kudos: 34
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	1. Caught Off Guard

Movement to his left brought Bucky’s head up, and a cold chill raced down his spine when he saw Tony floating towards him. “You done yet, Buckster? I’m really bored.”

He didn’t even process what he was doing, he just flipped the folder closed and shoved it behind his computer monitor, praying that Tony hadn’t noticed.

“Uh, no, well, almost, just a few more and we can—we can go.”

Tony gave him a weird look, his eyes narrowing. “What’s up with you? Why are you being all squirrelly?”

Bucky opened his mouth, knowing he had to find some way to explain, to tell the truth, but Barton popped up in the doorway, knocking his knuckles on the frame.

“Hey, Barnes? You were the gun on Romanoff’s mission in Liechtenstein?”

Bucky struggled to pull himself together, avoiding Tony’s questioning gaze. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I was.”

“Have you got any updated info on that civilian that got hit? Stark or something? Fury wants to know.”

Bucky froze, his mind scrambling frantically as it put together the puzzle pieces. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something on Tony’s face, like he was struggling to remember something.

“Nope, I don’t think so. Probably should ask Romanoff.”

“I did, she said she passed the file on to you.” 

The agent wandered closer, looking at the files spread across Bucky’s desk. Bucky wanted to shove him through a wall, anything to make him go away, so he could figure out what he was going to do, how he was going to tell Tony. Was... had he killed Tony?

“I haven’t gone through everything, I can do it tomorrow and let you know, but I don’t think—”

“Oh, hey, here it is!” The agent reached down behind Bucky’s computer monitor and picked up the file.

Bucky closed his eyes.

“Yeah, this is the one.” He flicked through it quickly, coming to a stop at the page with Tony’s photo on it. “Yeah, Tony Stark, the billionaire weapons dude. Or, clean energy now, which is what put us onto Stane. Here it is, Nat said she’d gotten an update from the hospital a couple days ago. He’s still alive.”

Bucky’s chest felt constricted, like there were iron bands around it preventing his lungs from expanding. His panicked eyes met Tony’s, who looked just as shocked as he had every right to be, and knew that there was no taking it back.

“You need the file?” He asked, hearing the hollowness of his voice as he held Tony’s gaze, watching the play of emotions on the ghost’s face.

“Nah, just need to give Fury a quick update, we can’t officially close up shop on this until we know about all the loose ends.” Barton headed for the door, oblivious to Bucky’s distracted behavior. “See ya, Machine.”

He left, and the utter silence in the office was like a tactile weight, suffocating and heavy. Tony’s face was pale as he stared at Bucky, and not just because he was translucent. There was betrayal and hurt in his eyes, and his voice was quiet when he asked, “You were trying to hide it from me?”

“I wasn’t thinking,” Bucky blurted out, his words rushing forth and nearly tangling up on the way out as he tried to explain. “I wasn’t thinking, I just saw your face and I panicked. I didn’t mean it, I promise.”

A flicker of anger crept into Tony’s voice, his tone going accusatory and suspicious. “If he hadn’t come along, would you have ever told me?”

“Yes! I swear I would have, I was just caught off guard, I swear!”

They were at a stalemate, Bucky feeling his stomach roil with dread as he waited for what felt like a sentencing.

Tony’s shoulders were stiff with tension, and he still had a myriad of emotions passing one after another over his face, and he almost looked like he wanted to forget what had just happened.

“Did you know who I was before now?” He asked quietly, voice shaking slightly.

“No. I didn’t. Not until I saw your picture, right before you came back in. I know your name though, Anthony Stark, it’s all over this report, but I’d never seen you before, not in person. You've been in the news, but I… I didn't make the connection until now, when Barton said it.”

“Did you even suspect?”

“No. The mission… the Lichtenstein mission, Romanoff was on the inside, trying to get information on Obadiah Stane." This part Bucky had known, of course, he'd been briefed on every detail. "We had evidence that he’d been dealing weapons under the table, Stark Industries weapons that were left over after… well, after you closed down manufacturing and shut down the whole thing. You turned the entire company in a new direction, working on green energy and that kind of stuff, but SI weapons kept showing up in the wrong hands. One of the other agents, Coulson, you remember him, he’d already investigated you and you came through clean. That was what put us on Stane, and I know Romanoff had been working on an in to the company for months before I was brought in. That night when you first showed up, I’d been following behind while Romanoff stayed on Stane, we were waiting for confirmation that he’d been behind a huge weapons deal that went down in Serbia. Once we got that, I was cleared to neutralize him. I took the shot, but it wasn’t as clean as I wanted it to be, and I was in the apartment confirming the kill when you just showed up out of nowhere." He stopped for a breath, his memory taking him back. "I… I thought, right as I pulled the trigger, that I’d seen someone else, a shadow in another room, but I wasn’t sure.”

Bucky looked at the file Barton had left on his desk, sliding it towards himself and flipping through the pages at the back. “I guess… you were there. You weren’t supposed to have been, but you showed up at the same time I took the shot. The bullet went right through the wall and… it hit you too. I never even saw your face, just a shadow, and after you appeared, ghost you, I didn’t check the rest of the apartment." 

Guilt cascaded through him as he read the notes on the after action report from Romanoff. "You got hit right in the chest, it looks like Romanoff found out you were there and she’s the one that called emergency services after I'd made it out clean. You coded on the way to the hospital, but they got you back. You… you’re at the hospital now, as of two days ago. Once you slipped into a stable coma, you were… holy shit, your personal assistant and Power of Attorney, _Pepper Potts_ , arranged for you to be transported back to the U.S., and she’s the one that Romanoff has been communicating with.”

Looking shaken, Tony floated down a bit until he was sitting in the chair across from Bucky, holding onto his arm, the one that had the message written on his skin in ink, from Pepper.

“I’m… I’m real.” The ghost whispered, gaze unfocused. “I’m real and I’m alive and there are people that know me.”

“Yeah,” Bucky murmured back, having difficulty processing all of it himself. “Tony, I…” He suddenly couldn’t speak, the phantom sensation of pulling the trigger of his rifle stopping his throat briefly. “Tony, it was _me_. I almost killed you. You’re in a coma because of me.”

Their eyes met, anguished gray-blue eyes meeting translucent brown ones.

“Yeah, you did.” Tony said in a disconnected way, blinking a few times. “But…”

Bucky’s heart skipped a beat.

“But you didn’t mean to. Right? It was… it was all an accident. And… you didn’t know, all this time. You didn’t know who I was.” There was still a hint of a question in Tony’s eyes, and Bucky couldn’t stand that.

“I didn’t. I promise. I had no idea.”

“And you would have told me if you did.” 

“I would have. I _swear_. As soon as I got over the shock of it, I would have. I never would have kept this from you, Tony. Not when I know what it does to you to be like this, stuck like you are.”

Something loosened in the ghost’s shoulders, his whole body sagging slight with relief. “That’s… it’s not _okay_ , but… it’s okay.”

Bucky breathed out, heavy and harsh, still feeling as though he couldn’t quite breathe. “Tony, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

The ghost shook his head, a small, sad smile on his face. “I know, Buck. Behind all that spy nonsense and a rather shocking tendency to stay in your apartment for days on end, you’re a good guy. Weird, but good.”

His laugh was strangled and strange, but Bucky didn’t care. “Think you’ll ever forgive me?”

“Eh, probably. Depends on if we can get me back into my body, you’ll definitely be forgiven then.” Tony’s smile was more sincere now, some of his sass coming back to him, and Bucky smiled back in relief.

“Yeah, I can do that. We’ve come this far, we might as well infiltrate the ICU ward of a hospital and do some kind of witchcraft or blood magic over your body. What could possibly go wrong?”

Tony’s eyes were twinkling, they way they did when he was about to say something sly or outrageous, but before he could say a word… he disappeared.

And didn’t come back.


	2. Who The Hell Are You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky didn't expect this. And it hurts. But maybe it's not the end.

Bucky hadn’t slept for over thirty-six hours, but he wasn’t about to stop and fix that. It had taken some doing, but he had finally found Tony, real Tony, Tony’s body that was still alive and breathing, propped halfway up on the reclining hospital bed, and Bucky was standing mere feet away from it.

Bucky had lied, told the nurse that he was Tony’s stepbrother, that he’d been away and hadn’t heard the news until now. She’d brought him into Tony’s room and left him alone, whispering when they found him sleeping, saying that he’d probably wake up soon.

So Bucky waited. He didn’t dare do anything else.

He thought as he waited, going back over the past month and a half. It seemed like a very long time and a very short time all at once, being stuck as he’d been with Tony. Funny to think how difficult it had been at first, living with the ghost, butting heads constantly. Now, they were friends, good friends, the kind of friends that you held onto.

What was Bucky going to do if he’d lost that?

“Who the hell are you?”

Coming abruptly out of his thoughts, Bucky realized that Tony was awake. His eyes were open, and he was glaring at Bucky suspiciously, like he expected trouble.

Which, considering that Bucky probably looked like hell, wasn’t an unreasonable expectation.

“Tony. You’re awake.”

“Yeeeeees.” He drew the word out, his eyes narrowing. “Do I know you?”

 _Oh._ That… that hurt in a way Bucky hadn’t been prepared for.

“Uh. Well.”

“It’s not a hard question, promise. Who are you, and what are you doing in my hospital room looking like some kind of scary hobo?”

It was painful to hear Tony’s voice like that, hard and confrontational, nothing like the teasing, maddening tone that Bucky was used to.

“Sorry. Caught me off guard.” Taking a deep breath and gathering himself, Bucky stepped closer and stuck out his hand. “I’m Agent James Barnes. Bucky. Friends call me Bucky.”

“How unfortunate for you.” Tony shook his hand, still looking at him with that guarded, suspicious expression.

He looked… exactly the same, save for the obvious signs of him having been in a coma, but there was a warmth in his eyes that Bucky had grown used to that was missing now. Tony was looking at him like a stranger, and that actually hurt.

“Why you looking at me like that?”

Bucky shook himself, realizing he’d been staring. “Sorry, uh… I just… I wanted to apologize.”

The words came out all on their own, but it turned out they were the right ones. Tony’s face lost some of its hard edge, a hint of curiosity on it now. “Apologize? Why?”

“Because… um, it’s my fault. You being in here. I accidentally shot you.”

Tony blinked in surprise, looked down at his chest, then back up again. “I heard I was an unfortunate casualty of a gang shooting gone wrong.”

Bucky winced, but figured, in for a penny… “Uh, no, that would be the cover story, I’m guessing. Which I should probably stick to, but I think you deserve the truth.”

“And that would be?”

“I shot you, on accident, because I was sent by the CIA to assassinate Obadiah Stane for illegal black market weapons dealing with terrorist organizations. You just happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time, behind the wrong wall when I pulled the trigger.”

As Tony’s eyes got wider and wider with shock, Bucky acknowledged in the back of his mind that he just _might_ get in trouble for this.

Couldn’t quite bring himself to care, though. This was more important.

* * *

“So. To sum up.” Tony slid over a cup of lime jello and a spoon, keeping the cherry for himself and scooping some of it into his mouth. “You’re telling me that my business partner, the man who was an uncle to me my whole life, a man I’ve looked up to since I was a kid, has in fact secretly been aiding and abetting terrorists for the past several years, and you are the assassin that was sent to snuff him.”

Bucky took a bite of jello and nodded. “Yup. That’s about it.” He’d left out the ghost stuff. For now. That wasn’t exactly the kind of thing you brought up in your first conversation with someone. Treason of a beloved almost-family member was quite as far as he was willing to go today.

“Right. And how the hell are you allowed to tell me all this? I was under the impression that spies and assassins were generally a lot more hush-hush about this kind of thing.”

Bucky shrugged, “You deserved to know. And honestly, the gang fight story wouldn’t have held up for long with you. You would have gone digging, and you’d have found it all out eventually. Honestly, I’m just giving the CIA a break at this point, really.”

They were quiet for a minute, working on their jello, though Tony was looking at Bucky strangely.

“You know, you talk to me funny. Like… like you know me.”

Bucky accidentally swallowed a cube of jello whole. “Oh. Yeah. Uh… I um…” He cast around wildly for something to say. “You know, I actually heard you were a writer. So I… looked you up. Read about you. So I guess I just feel like I know you.” Oof, wow, he used to be better at lying, what happened to him?

Tony was squinting, and it was so familiar, and Bucky hadn’t realized until just this moment how close he and Tony had become. To know him that well.

“Who told you that?”

“I just, uh, nobody, I just heard it in the hall before when you were sleeping. And I thought I’d…” He blew out a breath and committed to the idea that had popped into his head. “Seeing as how I landed you in here, I guess I owe you a favor. So if you ever need to do, like, any research or anything? Ask any questions, give your novel some realism… I’d be happy to help.”

Tony was looking at him all suspiciously again, like Bucky was an equation he couldn’t quite solve. “You nearly killed me, but you’re gonna make it up to me by letting me ask you a bunch of questions? For research.”

Bucky had to hold back both feelings and a smile. “Yeah. Something like that.”

There were a few tense seconds of silence, then the faintest, familiar curve quirked up one side of Tony’s mouth. He settled back against his pillows, spooning up another bite of jello. “Alright. You’re on.”

Bucky let his smile go, relief flowing through him. He'd tell Tony, someday, once things weren't so... weird. He'd explain all the parts that he'd left out, the part where they'd kind of gone from enemies to friends. All the little parts in the middle about how Tony had managed to pry open Bucky's shell and urge him out of it, just a bit.

Someday, he'd tell that part of the story. But for now, it was enough to see a hint of that smirk and know that somewhere in there, he still had a friend.


End file.
